10 matchups to watch during NFL Week 5

As we saw throughout the first quarter of the season, there have been some tremendous individual matchups around the NFL during the first month of the season.

Last week alone, Calvin Johnson went up against the Seattle Seahawks and Richard Sherman. The end result of this titanic matchup had Detroit falling to 0-4 after a controversial call that saw Johnson fumble the ball near the end zone.

Back in Week 3, Oakland Raiders rookie Amari Cooper torched Joe Haden and the Cleveland Browns for eight receptions and 134 yards on 11 targets.

Sensing a theme here? With all the stellar wide receiver play thus far this year, individual matchups within specific games have been dominated by players at that position.

This isn't going to change in Week 5 with four elite-level matchups between wide receivers and corners. In addition to those, here are six other matchups you should check out during Week 5 of the NFL season.

1. Calvin Johnson vs Patrick Peterson 

After a tough late-game fumble against the Seattle Seahawks on Monday night, Johnson must find a way to move on in relatively short order if he's going to help the Detroit Lions actually win a football game this season.

It's going to be a difficult task going from Richard Sherman to another elite cover corner in Peterson this upcoming Sunday. Peterson, a Pro Bowl performer in each of his first four seasons, has been stellar this season, yielding a total of four receptions in as many games.

The issue here for Johnson is that Detroit hasn't done a good job moving him around prior to the snap. There were multiple times on Monday when the Lions could have lined Johnson up against Cary Williams instead of Sherman. Shockingly, that's something the team didn't do. Through four games, Johnson is averaging just 5.7 yards per target. That has to change if Detroit is going to come out on top Sunday against a good Arizona Cardinals team.

2. Seattle Seahawks offensive line vs Cincinnati Bengals defensive line

As evidenced Monday night, Russell Wilson is the best quarterback in the NFL in terms of escaping pressure. Unfortunately for Wilson, said pressure did lead to two fourth quarter fumbles, one of which was returned for a touchdown. He may be about as slippery as possible in the offensive backfield, but consistent pressure will continue to get to the athletic quarterback.

Through four games, Wilson has been sacked 16 times and pressured 43 percent of the time he's dropped back to pass. That's just plain horrible, and at some point we are going to have to start worrying about the quarterback's safety here.

Seattle and its disastrous offensive line will now take on a Bengals defense that has racked up 11 sacks in four games. It will be doing so on the road with Wilson likely having to go to a silent count. It's imperative that Seattle finds some way to pass protect better. If not, the team could very well lose more than just its third game of the season.

3. Rob Gronkowski vs Sean Lee and Rolando McClain

All indications are that Lee will be able to go against the New England Patriots after suffering a concussion in the Dallas Cowboys late-game loss to the New Orleans Saints on Sunday night. For the Cowboys sake, the hope here is that he does get through the concussion protocol unscathed.

The better news for Dallas here is that McClain will be returning to action after serving his four-game suspension. Going up against the best tight end in the NFL, it's vital that Dallas has both of these guys ready to go and playing at a high level. After all, the safety tandem of J.J. Wilcox and Barry Church doesn't exactly match up well against Gronkowski.

4. Julio Jones vs Chris Culliver

Culliver has clearly taken over as the Washington Redskins top corner in his first season with the team. That's magnified by the fact that he's been targeted a total of 11 times in four games. Instead of going after the physical defensive back, opposing offenses have decided to attack weaknesses in Washington's secondary.

For his part, Jones is coming off a game against the Houston Texans that saw him put up just four catches for 38 yards on six targets. In his first three games this season, Jones recorded 34 receptions for 440 yards. With Roddy White complaining about a lack of targets, something is going to have to give against a vastly improved Redskins defense come Sunday.

If Culliver is able to shut Jones down, or at least contain him like Houston did last week, it could lead to the Atlanta Falcons first loss of the season. If not, Atlanta will continue rolling. It really is that simple.

5. David Bakhtiari vs Robert Quinn

Lost in the fact that Green Bay is 4-0 on the season and coming off a dominating 17-3 win over the hapless San Francisco 49ers is that Aaron Rodgers has actually faced a tremendous amount of pressure thus far this year. While the MVP candidate has been sacked just six times, he's been pressure over one-third of the time. Last week alone, Rodgers was sacked three times and hit a total of five times.

For the Packers, it's all about picking their poison here. Defensive tackle Aaron Donald is an early candidate for Defensive Player of the Year. Meanwhile, Chris Long is on pace for his third double-digit sack season. However, it's a dynamic player in Robert Quinn who has to concern Green Bay the most. He has three sacks in four games and has continually put pressure on opposing quarterbacks.

If Green Bay is going to remain undefeated, it will need to contain this ferocious pass rush. That's going to be the key to giving Rodgers time in what is a timing-based west coast offense.

6. Sam Bradford vs New Orleans Saints pass defense

Bradford may have broken out of his early-season struggles with three second half touchdown passes last week against the Washington Redskins, two of which went for 35-plus yards. That ended a span of 14 quarters to open the season that saw Bradford throw three touchdowns compared to four interceptions while leading Philadelphia to a total of 58 points.

Now going up against a Saints defense that is allowing quarterbacks to complete 63 percent of their passes with a 116.3 rating, Bradford has a prime chance to pick up where he left off against Washington. Last week alone, Brandon Weeden completed 16-of-26 passes for 243 yards against the Saints defense.

If Bradford can't continue the excellent play we saw late last week, it might just be that he's not going to be that elite-level quarterback some in Philadelphia foolishly envisioned during the preseason.

7. Amari Cooper vs Aqib Talib

This is going to be one heck of a matchup. Cooper, playing like a seasoned veteran, is on pace for nearly 100 receptions and about 1,400 yards this season. He will be lining up against a corner in Talib that is allowing a 64.1 quarterback rating when targeted this season.

In what will likely be a more competitive game between these two teams than we have seen since Peyton Manning joined the Broncos, this one-on-one duel will go a long way in determining the outcome. If Derek Carr is able to continue his success through the air, mainly to Cooper and Michael Crabtree, the Oakland Raiders could potentially find a way to hand Denver its first loss of the season.

On the other hand, Denver has been shutting down opposing quarterbacks at a tremendous clip this season. If Talib is able to hold Cooper in check, it will force Carr into having to look elsewhere. As a young quarterback, that could lead to some mistakes.

8. Antonio Brown vs Brandon Flowers

Flowers is going to have to pick up his game big time this week against the best receiver the AFC has to offer. Last week saw the veteran corner yield six receptions on eight targets to Cleveland Browns receiver Travis Benjamin. While Brown is the same type of down-field threat as Benjamin, he's a much better all-around receiver.

With Martavis Bryant expected to make his regular season debut after sitting out the first four games due to a suspension, San Diego won't be able to turn all of its attention to Brown. That should lead the Pro Bowler to receive single coverage from Flowers a few times. If so, he could have another huge game under the lights on national television.

9. Carlos Hyde vs New York Giants run defense

The only way the San Francisco 49ers are going to keep this prime time game close and entertaining is if they find a way to get this second-year running back going.

After putting up 168 yards and two touchdowns against the Minnesota Vikings in the season opener, Hyde has seen the ball a total of 26 times over the past three games. Interestingly, that's the same amount of times he rushed in San Francisco's win against Minnesota in Week 1. It doesn't take a genius to understand why this has been the case.

In the midst of a three-game losing streak, Hyde and the 49ers need to find a way to get it going on the ground in order to take the pressure off Colin Kaepernick behind a terrible offensive line.

10. Marcus Mariota vs Buffalo Bills secondary

Buffalo may be yielding the fourth-most passing yards in the NFL heading into Week 5, but those generic numbers don't tell us the entire story. Quarterbacks have thrown six interceptions against this defense in four games while tallying a 80.6 rating. Meanwhile, the Bills are facing an average of nearly 49 pass attempts per game.

With the high volume of passes being thrown Buffalo's way, Rex Ryan has his defense playing exceptional football in coverage. Going up against a dominating run defense, this means that Mariota will likely be putting the ball up 40-plus times on Sunday. If so, it wouldn't be surprising to see the rookie follow up his two-interception performance from Week 3 with yet another turnover-prone game.

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